Page 472 - Sports
Andreescu seeks breakthrough win at Indian Wells
Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu will try to follow in footsteps of world number one Naomi Osaka on Sunday and cap a magical run at Indian Wells with a first WTA title. Andreescu grabbed a slice of history when she became the first wild card to reach the women's final in the California desert with her 6-3 2-6 6-4 victory over sixth-ranked Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. It was her ninth win over a top-50 player this year and an astonishing 27th match win across all levels for a player who came through qualifying to reach her first WTA final at Auckland in January. "It's incredible," beamed Andreescu, who recovered from 3-1 down in the third set to beat Irina-Camelia Begu in the first round then roared past Dominika Cibulkova and Stefanie Voegele in the second and third rounds with the loss of just seven games. She then toppled 18th-seeded Wang Qiang before an impressive 6-0, 6-1 rout of former world number one Garbine Muguruza in the quarter-finals. In Kerber she'll be facing another ...
Juventus coach dispels fears of Ronaldo's ban
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has said he does not think his Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is likely to be banned from European club competitions for the way he celebrated his team's 3-0 defeat of Atletico Madrid this Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League round-of-16.
Ranieri's Champions League ambitions dented by SPAL
Claudio Ranieri's Roma fell to a shock 2-1 defeat at struggling SPAL on Saturday, missing a golden opportunity to close the gap on Champions League rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan. Milan are third, one point ahead of Inter, with Roma in fifth three points back in the battle for elite European football next season, ahead of Sunday's Milan derby. Ranieri had won his first match after taking over from sacked Eusebio Di Francesco -- 2-1 against Empoli -- but his side fell to their relegation-threatened hosts, leaving Roma's season in the balance after their Champions League elimination at the hands of Porto and 3-0 beating by to city rivals Lazio. "I expected more. Our opponents were a team and we weren't," said Ranieri of Roma, who also lost the reverse fixture 2-0 in October. "There's a plan in place if Roma get into the Champions League," he warned his players. If we don't, quite a few of these guys could change clubs. "We lost to a team who earn less than us, who are more humble than .
Atletico Madrid suffers 2-0 loss to Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid capped off a week to forget with a 2-0 away loss to Athletic Bilbao in a La Liga clash, a defeat that could leave them 10 points behind first-placed FC Barcelona by the end of the weekend.
Reus sends Dortmund top with late winner in Berlin
Marco Reus admits Borussia Dortmund are struggling to pick up wins in the Bundesliga title race, even as his late goal sent them top by sealing Saturday's dramatic 3-2 victory at Hertha Berlin. Dortmund's win leaves them three points clear of defending champions Bayern Munich, who must bounce back from their Champions League exit to Liverpool by beating Mainz on Sunday. Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou twice breached Dortmund's defence in a poor first half by the visitors, who have taken 12 points from a possible 21 in their last seven league games. Danish midfielder Thomas Delaney and defender Dan-Axel Zagadou twice equalised for Dortmund before Reus' late strike at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Hertha had defender Jordan Torunarigha and substitute striker Vedad Ibisevic sent off in the final few minutes of a bad-tempered match. "The most important thing was the three points we took," Dortmund captain Reus told Sky. "We dominated the second half and played better football the first. "We're .
Man City hit back to reach FA Cup semis after Swansea scare
- Sergio Aguero kept alive Manchester City's hopes of an unprecedented quadruple as they survived a major FA Cup scare in a thrilling fightback from two goals down to win 3-2 at Swansea in Saturday's quarter-finals. Aguero had watched from the substitutes' bench as second-tier Swansea roared into a stunning first half lead through goals from Matt Grimes and Bersant Celina. But the Argentine emerged as City's saviour on a rainy night in south Wales by setting up their first goal for Bernardo Silva, before completing the comeback with a last-gasp winner after Swansea keeper Kristoffer Nordfeldt scored an unlucky own goal from the Argentina striker's penalty to draw City level. Having already won the League Cup and advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals, Premier League leaders City remain in the hunt for a clean sweep of all four major trophies. It was a fortunate escape for City on Saturday however, as replays showed Raheem Sterling was fortunate to win the penalty that led to .
Ronaldo rested for Genoa clash after Champions League heroics
Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Juventus' trip to Genoa after firing the Serie A side to the Champions League quarter-finals, coach Massimiliano said on Saturday. "I'm leaving him at home, he had played a lot and he needs to rest. Right now it would be too risky to play him," Allegri told reporters. "I don't need to convince him. We spoke about it yesterday, I explained my point regarding the fixtures between now and the (Champions League) quarter finals and he agreed." Juve will take on Ajax next month after Ronaldo scored a sensational hat-trick to overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit against Atletico midweek and win 3-2 on aggregate. The Portuguese openly taunted the Atleti fans in the stands during the post-match celebrations, but Allegri said he was not worried about UEFA banning his star player for the clash with the resurgent Dutch side. "Everyone celebrated differently on Tuesday, there were 42,000 fans there and we could suspend them all (based on how they behaved)," he ...
Wolves shock Man United to reach FA Cup semis
Wolves inflicted a second straight defeat on Manchester United on Saturday, outplaying Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side to secure a 2-1 win and reach the FA Cup semi-finals. United lacked spark throughout and were overcome by an eager Wolves side with two goals in the space of six minutes in the second half from Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota. Marcus Rashford's injury-time effort was a mere consolation. Solskjaer had presided over a run of just two defeats in 18 games since replacing Jose Mourinho in December, progressing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the last eight of the FA Cup. But now they have suffered two losses in a row after their Champions League exertions at Paris Saint-Germain. United were favourites but the Midlanders' form against the top six that has carried them to seventh position in the Premier League gave home fans hope. The early signs were that United, not Wolves, were going to live up to the hype of the warm-up, dominating early possession. The ...
Onus on players to strike balance: Ashwin on IPL-WC
Echoing similar sentiments with India skipper Virat Kohli, ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes the cricketers will have to themselves keep a check on their workload during the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), starting March 23.
FIFA to make public the vote for 2023 Women's World Cup
FIFA has agreed to make public its vote on the host for the 2023 Women's World Cup. The organization's decision-making body is becoming more transparent after concerns were raised last month that the women's tournament wouldn't fully follow the new voting process for the men's World Cup. The United States, Canada and Mexico were chosen last year to host the 2026 World Cup. The votes by the FIFA Congress of all member associations were published. Previously, the decisions were taken in private by the scandal-discredited FIFA executive committee, which was renamed the FIFA Council in 2016. But FIFA announced last month that its 37-person council would still decide on the destination of the 2023 Women's World Cup, with no mention of votes being publicly declared. Now, FIFA has said following a meeting in Miami that after the council makes its decision in March 2020, the "result of each ballot and related votes of each member" will be "open and made public." It could be the most hotly ...
'Like we never left' - Smith and Warner back in Aussie cricket fold
Steve Smith and David Warner have been welcomed back into the Australian fold with "hugs and cuddles" at a team meet-up in Dubai, and said it was like they'd never left. The disgraced pair, whose year-long bans for ball-tampering expire this month, were invited by coach Justin Langer as part of their re-integration after the scandal in South Africa that rocked the cricketing world. Australia are in Dubai as they prepare for an upcoming series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates following their upset one-day series win against India. "It's been awesome. It's like we didn't really leave, the boys were very accepting of us coming in and with open arms," said Warner in audio comments supplied to AFP Sunday. "A lot of big hugs and cuddles. It's been great. "It's good to see the spirit they're in after a great series win in India and I am obviously looking forward to watching them play against Pakistan here and hopefully they win that series as well," he added. The "sandpapergate" .
Wayne Rooney has hat trick, DC United routs Real Salt Lake
Wayne Rooney had a hat-trick and added an assist to help D.C. United beat nine-man Real Salt Lake 5-0 on Saturday night. Rooney converted a penalty to open the scoring in the 34th minute. Marcelo Silva brought down Paul Arriola in the 18-yard box and the penalty was confirmed after video review. Rooney chipped a shot into the right corner in the 35th minute, and made it 3-0 in the 65th. Lucas Rodriguez scored in the 76th and Ulises Segura capped the scoring in the 80th. Bill Hamid had his third shutout in three games for D.C. United (2-0-1). Real Salt Lake dropped to 1-1-1. Jefferson Savarino was shown red in first-half stoppage time for a high kick, and received a second yellow card and was sent off in the 67th minute.
Bangladesh players return home
Having narrowly escaped a terror attack in a mosque that claimed 49 lives, a traumatised Bangladesh cricket team returned home with players stating that it will take some time for the normalcy to return. According to Bangladesh's leading newspaper 'Daily Star', Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan said that as the players had gone through such a traumatic experience, they required a break from cricket. "He advised that the players spend time with their families and try not to relive the memories from that day -- when the players were warned against entering the Masjid Al Noor by passersby and quickly got away from the scene of a gruesome attack that has claimed 49 lives," the newspaper reported. Bangladesh's senior opener Tamim Iqbal admitted that it would take some time before they can return to the field. "What we faced here, it will take some time for us to get over what we suffered," Tamim said before boarding the flight for Bangladesh. However, the left-hander was ...
IPL 2019: Kohli want Indian players to be smart
With the proximity of the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) and the 2019 World Cup, managing workload by Indian cricketers is being seen as a major issue, however, skipper Virat Kohli feels any player should be smart enough to deal with it.
Lahiri misses cut; Europeans dominate leaderboard at PLAYERS
Anirban Lahiri failed to make the cut after finishing with a poor card of one-over 217 at the PLAYERS Championship. Lahiri's shot 76 in the third round and was tied 74th and exited after the third round. The cut now leaves 73 players for the final round. On Friday, 80 players made the cut at one-under which necessitated and second cut, called 'MDF' which means "Made cut/Did not finish". Only top 70 and ties after 54 holes play the final round. The leaderboard was dominated by the Europeans with no Americans featuring in the top five. Spain's long-hitting Jon Rahm shot a blistering 64 pushing him one shot ahead of co-overnight leaders Tommy Fleetwood (70) and Rory McIlroy (70) in the USD 12.5 million tournament. Australia's Jason Day (68) will enter Sunday's final round three back while Mexican Abraham Ancer (70) is fifth, a further shot back of the leader. Tiger Woods who had a quadruple on Par-3 17th in second round shot a birdie in third and that from two feet, but he managed only a
Kohli says there're no juniors-seniors in team:Shaw
He is considered as one of the most talented youngsters among the current crop of cricketers and Prithvi Shaw is looking to make it count as he works his way back to the national team after an injury lay-off.
Thiem beats Raonic, advance to Indian Wells final
The Austrian Dominic Thiem will contest the Indian Wells final after beating Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6 (3), 6-7 (3), 6-4 in two hours and 31 minutes.
Bangladesh cricketers fly home from New Zealand
Players and staff of the Bangladesh cricket team which narrowly escaped terror attack on two New Zealand mosques have returned to Dhaka.
Special Olympics World Games: UAE women's basketball teams earn 2 gold medals
Hosts UAE on Saturday added two more gold medals to its tally as the unified female basketball team (division 1) and traditional female team (division 3) both overcame their opponents on the second day of Special Olympics World Games 2019 here.In front of a large crowd at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), the unified female division 1 team beat Pakistan 23-7, whilst the traditional division 3 team beat Egypt 13-11.The final whistle sparked frenzied celebrations from fans and player, Sherifa Saeed Al Yaqoubi, who was on the winning side against Egypt, could not hide her delight."This is an amazing victory for us. We have all been preparing hard for the World Games and our training has paid off with this result. We are absolutely thrilled to win as it was a difficult game where Egypt did not give up until the end," the 22-year-old Sherifa said.She added: "Every single person in the squad is determined to give their best and this result will give us a lot of confidence for ...
Wrong decisions kept RCB away from IPL title: Virat Kohli
Wrong decisions were the reasons due to which the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) did not win even a single Indian Premier League (IPL) title, said Virat Kohli here on Saturday.Kohli, captain of RCB, was attending an event along with Ashish Nehra and RCB coach Gary Kirsten to launch an RCB App."If you take wrong decisions, then you will lose. Our decision making was not good in big games. When the team's decision making is balanced, those teams have won in the IPL," Kohli said.While talking about the fan base that his team has created, 30-year-old said: "Even after so many years and having reached three finals and played three semi-finals, not having the trophy in our hands, we never felt like there was a lack of enthusiasm before starting a season and that is something that stands out for me the most and that can only happen when you have such a strong fan base."RCB App has been created to bring all the RCB fans together and give them a one-stop platform to all things related to ...